We start with The Old Fort - 1816: Frontier Fort to Statehood, a bicentennial publication about the reconstructed Old Fort Wayne, which is located just across the St. Mary’s River from downtown Fort Wayne. This 16-page, booklet provides a history of the Fort of 1816 as well as the Reconstructed Fort, information about life in the area in 1816, a full-color 1817 map of Indiana, a sketch of Fort Wayne in 1816 and a nifty recipe for rhubarb custard pie!

Moving into the 20th Century, we have the 1983 History of the Greater Fort Wayne Chamber of Commerce, by Kathleen Kearns Brita. The Wayne Club and the Commercial Club merged to form the Greater Fort Wayne Chamber of Commerce and construction began on the Wayne Street building in 1926. The history and photos tell just part of Fort Wayne’s great story!

We always love yearbooks, so next we have Hoagland School Yearbooks, 1957 and 1958. These are for the elementary school, and includes photos of the students by class, teachers photos, activities and an autograph section on which special friends wrote their names or pasted photographs.

Speaking of yearbooks, we also have the Fort Wayne Art School, Art Lights,1929 yearbook. It includes photos of various people connected with the Art School, as well as personal mementos of Anna Marie Woomer of Marion.

We also have an Exhibit Catalog: Of Growth and Form. The 1976 exhibit at the Allen County Public Library displayed various pieces of art in wood, as well as biographical information on the artists.

And thanks to Marsha Smiley, we also have a Scrapbook from the Bahai Community in Fort Wayne. The scrapbook includes photos, telegrams concerning the Dedication Service in 1943, newspaper clippings and various communiques. Thanks also to Marsha for continuing to collect Memorials of local African American residents. Due to a recent donation of 186 additional Memorials, there are now more than 2500 in the collection!

A few new items have been added to our growing General Electric Collection Page. This time they are press releases for February 13, 2017. G.E. was a huge employer in Fort Wayne in the 20th century, and our growing collection consists of archives, photographs and Elex Club materials.

And to end on a sweet note, we have Wayne Candies Business History, by Randy Harter. Wayne Candies made the beloved Bun Bars here in Fort Wayne and this short article, with a photo of the plant on East Berry, provides a concise account of the business transactions of the company through the twentieth century.

There is also an 1812 era map of Fort Wayne came from the cartographic collection of David Rumsey, which shows the three rivers, the Portage, the Wabash Trail, Wayne Trace and more early locations of interest to local historians.

Log Cabins in Allen County, Indiana was a collection of 31 photographs that, at some point in the past, had been collected into a small scrapbook. No photographer is identified, nor is any information of when they were collected included, but each photo was loosely identified as to location, such as “Log Smoke House; Auburn Road,” “Detail of House Built by Eugene Corneille in 1861,” or “First Frame House Built In St. Vincent Settlement; Auburn Road,” but the images preserved and shared here are amazing.

Finally, sever more Abstracts of title have been added: Fleck’s Subdivision in LaGro Reserve, Lot 8; Forest Park, Block 15, Lot 10; and Windsor Woods, Section II, Lot 80. As usual, these abstracts provide vital information, not only about the single piece of property described, but each will also reflect information concerning property in the area.

We invite you to capture A Day in Allen County, Indiana! On Sunday, October 16, 2016, take pictures of anything and everything that is happening in our county in that twenty-four hour time period, and send them to us! What is your view of Allen County that day? These pictures are not limited to marquee events. We want to capture what is going on throughout the entire community; so pictures can be of people at work, children at play, sporting events, weather and blooming flowers, homes and buildings, traffic scenes, hikers and bikers, and people just hanging out. Include a brief description you would like put with the picture.

We have several items online now that formerly have only been available as print resources.

The first is Payments to Miami Indians, 1859. This is a transcription of original payrolls owned by the Allen County-Fort Wayne Historical Society which lists Miami heads of families and individuals who were living east of the Mississippi River and received a payment in 1854.

Next is Records of the Miami Indians of Indiana, which contains three parts: the 1895 Annuity Payment Roll of the Miami of Indiana who were, at that time, living in Kansas, Oklahoma Territory and Indian Territory; a collection of newspaper stories on the Miami; and a copy of Chief Godfory’s “Miami Indian Stories,” published in 1961. All of these items are name and keyword searchable.

The last item was from a microfilm collection of Annuities and Census of the Miami Indians. Included are Annuity Payrolls for 1882, 1891, and 1895, the Annuity Payroll for the Eel River Tribe, 1889 Annuity, a transcription for a land division for Francis Godfroy, and the 1881 Census of Miami Indians in Indiana and elsewhere. All of these items are also name and keyword searchable.

If you are seeking information on the Miami Tribe of Indiana, these sources would be a good place to search.

The resolution of a historical mystery is always a cause for rejoicing, especially here in The Genealogy Center when the mystery involves the early history of Fort Wayne. Hugh McCulloch (1808-1895) and his wife Susan (Man) (1818-1898) were early influential pioneers of our city. Hugh became a prominent banker and would eventually serve as Secretary of the Treasury under President Lincoln. The story of Hugh’s courtship of Susan, whom he met in 1836 when he was a young widowed banker and she an unmarried schoolteacher, is chronicled poignantly in their correspondence, most of which is housed in the Lilly Library of Indiana University, though The Genealogy Center has a typewritten transcript. Both were excellent writers and provided some of the most vivid descriptions of Fort Wayne society from the 1830s through the 1860s of any writers, making their correspondence an important source for the cultural history of the city. Through the letters we learn much about churches, politics, rivalries, socials, and even recipes that provide an unusual window on their times.

After meeting and establishing a close friendship with her future husband, Susan returned to her home in Plattsburgh, New York, in 1837. As a Christmas present, she had her miniature painted by Charlotte Deming, and sent it to her suitor. Hugh wrote on December 22, “…Your miniature came safely to hand. The more I gaze upon it the more I admire it. It is the best I have ever seen. All of my friends to whom I have shown it think it an admirable likeness. When I am alone I keep it constantly before me. I cannot tell you how highly I prize it.”

Susan, in her reply, expressed her anxiety over it. “I was very uneasy about it and therefore feel quite relieved. I feared you would not like the dress when it was taken but Cornelius thought it could not be improved, and Miss Deming said that it would look natural much longer for being plain as the fashions of “neckerchiefs” change so often. I am very happy to hear that you think it a good likeness. You can paste a piece of paper over the glass to hide the dress. Perhaps it will give you some pleasure to know that I do not dress so always.”

This playful exchange by the couple has always shrouded a deeper mystery: What happened to the portrait, and where is it now? There are many later portraits of Susan and Hugh extant in various collections, but this miniature has eluded Fort Wayne historians. But the mystery is now over.

Recently, a collector found the miniature and was able to acquire it from a descendant. He was very generous to share a scan of it for The Genealogy Center’s collection. We are delighted to share it and to know that a small part of this couple’s historically significant correspondence can now be better illuminated.

We’ve recently added more Allen County material to our Free Databases and they are all materials to view, even if you are not a Fort Wayne native!

School yearbooks are a wonderful source. Some of our most heavily used materials here in The Genealogy Center are the local yearbooks for the local elementary, middle (junior) and high schools. We have an almost complete collection of the high schools and most of the middle schools, but elementary yearbooks were not regularly collected or published until the latter half of the twentieth century. However, recently one of our volunteers came across the Harmar School Readiol for 1946. The yearbook was designed and produced by students, primarily on a mimeograph machine (remember sniffing the ink?). Included are brief histories of the area and the school, articles describing the year’s activities and student groups, lists of graduates from January and June, providing nicknames, pet peeves and ambitions for each graduate. Following that, there are pages of photographs of the graduates that are not mimeographed. Finally, there are jokes and advertisements for local businesses. Because of these last two sections, you get a history of the area, through the ads, and a feel for the culture, through the jokes, which were still heavy with humor rooted in World War II.

We have also added the 1957 Diocese of Fort Wayne Annual Manual. This searchable document contains a history of the diocese, lists of clergy, administrators, parishes, schools and missions, calendars and more. This is an extremely valuable resources for anyone searching Catholic church records in northeast Indiana.

The 1953 Sears Grand Opening advertisement, for the new store at Clinton at Rudisill Streets, illustrates the new building and touts the highlights, like free parking and air conditioning, and information on the four days of sales, like a $30 full-length women’s coat, men’s leather coats for $14.88 and $99 chrome-plated dinette sets.

Finally, we have a collection of unidentified photos by Magnus O. Schoenherr, a Fort Wayne Photographer in the early 1900s. Most of the twelve photographs are single sitters, children, young men or women, but there is one couple and a group photo taken at Robison Park on August 1, 1909. Contact information is provided, in case anyone recognizes any of these people. Have a look and see who you might know!

There are a number of fabulous additions to our Fort Wayne and Allen County Resources that researchers and residents will find interesting. First is the Tom Mungovan Funeral Home Records, which consist of 1720 records and 3162 images. Thomas E. Mungovan opened his funeral home at 2221 South Calhoun in 1942, advertising personal service "to provide the means of paying the finest tribute to the memory of those who have gone on - without hardship to those who remain and must live." The family has continued the business since his death in 1981. In 1987, through the generosity of family members, copies of the records, dating from 1942 to 1987, were donated to the Genealogy Department and bound in eight volumes (977.202 F77TO). In 2015, the family again offered The Genealogy Center access to their 1980-2014 records, which have been digitized, for the use of family historians.

We now have Fort Wayne Fire Department annual reports, 1961 and 1962 to add to our FWFD collection. These annual reports consist of a letter to the mayor, recommendations for the coming year, progress report of earlier recommendations, roster of personnel, a master plan map of Fort Wayne showing locations of existing, relocated and proposed fire stations and more.

Finally, we have a Wolf & Dessauer, Menu, 1940. W&D was one of the largest department stores in Fort Wayne and its Tea Room (for the ladies) and Men’s Grill were the places to go for lunch. The daily specials for June 15th included Bakes Stuffed Pork Chop with two sides and dessert for 60 cents, or Chicken Fricassee for 75. W&D’s was forward thinking, so they also offered a vegetarian option for 55 cents. Sandwiches included sliced chicken for 40 cents or salmon salad for 20. Desserts included “homemade” pies and cakes at 10 cents a serving. The back of the menu was a souvenir historical map of Fort Wayne.

We have a fabulous “new” map for your viewing pleasure on our free Allen County, Indiana Resources page. It is a 1935 Business Loop map of downtown Fort Wayne, bordered by Brackenridge on the south, Webster on the west, Columbia and the railroad on the north and Barr on the east. From the whole map which serves as an overview, one may click on sections to see enlargements, to view the locations of theaters, churches, stores and residences all over downtown. Most businesses are specified, such as Patterson Fletcher, Stag Cigar, Bon Ton Bakery, Kroger Market, Baltes hotel and more, although some are just identified as barber or filling station. Buildings are identified by street number and trolley tracks are shown, as is Transfer Corner at Calhoun and Berry. At the top is a statistical summary of the types of businesses, including 18 shoe stores, 40 clothing stores, 22 barbers, 10 hotels, 12 markets, and 9 beer parlors. Residences are not identified by name. The map can be a bit confusing at first, as west is at the top, and a strong knowledge of the streets of Fort Wayne’s downtown or a current map may serve as an aid to browsing.

Recently, additions have been made to two of the free databases for Allen County. More than four thousand records for North Side High School have been added to the Allen County High school Yearbooks Index. A name search in the index provides the year and page number for students mentioned in the local yearbooks for Central High (1914-1971), Central Catholic High (1915-1972), North Side High (1929-1959, except 1937, 1940 and 1947) and South Side High (1923-1974 and 1976-1994). Copies of the yearbooks are held in The Genealogy Center.

Orphanage records are scarce in Fort Wayne in general. The records of the Allen County Children's Home were “lost” many years ago. What records exist for other locations must be obtained through various agencies. But now The Genealogy Center has two great sources for children who lived at St. Vincent Villa, the local Catholic Orphanage.

St. Vincent Orphan Asylum, originally for girls only, opened in 1867 on 25 acres northwest of Fort Wayne. Over the years, the building deteriorated and in 1932, Bishop John F. Noll had a new facility built to house both girls and boys. Due to difficulties families encountered when one parent died or deserted the family, many so-called orphans of the nineteenth century actually had one parent still living. Such was the case of the twentieth century St. Vincent’s, so Noll called the new facility St. Vincent Villa, to remove the term “orphan.” More than 3500 children lived there over the years.

A scrapbook covering the 1930s to reunions in the twenty-first century, kept by long-time Villa volunteer Bill McCardle, was donated to The Genealogy Center along with copies of “Inter Nos,” the Villa’s newsletter from 1941 to 1954 and a history of the Villa. These items were scanned and are available for review at our website and are searchable through the federated search on The Center’s home page.

Thanks to all who contributed to allowing us to scan these items and making them available.

We invite you to capture a day in Allen County, Indiana! Sunday, September 21, 2014—the last official full day of summer—take pictures of anything and everything that is happening in our county in that twenty-four hour time period, and send them to us! What is your view of Allen County that day?

These pictures are not limited to marquee events. We want to capture what is going on throughout the entire community, so pictures can be of people at work, children at play, baseball games and sporting events, weather and blooming flowers, homes and buildings, traffic scenes, hikers and bikers, and people just hanging out. Include a description you would like put with the picture. If it’s happening in the twenty-four hours of September 21st, it’s worth capturing!

In your search for your family history, have you gone beyond just recording names, dates and places? It is interesting and worthwhile to try to flesh out other details of our ancestors’ lives, including such information as church membership, hobbies, club memberships, military service, residences, and occupations of our family members. Sometimes these details will provide clues that lead you to further records about your ancestor. All of this description about their lives helps to humanize the persons we are researching and will provide great reading for future generations perusing the family history we have left behind.

Beyond genealogical reasons, knowing our ancestor’s work history and occupation can have far-reaching health and legal ramifications. Several months ago, I helped a gentleman in The Genealogy Center to document his deceased father’s work history. We reviewed Fort Wayne City and Allen County Directories for the 1940s (we have a complete run of these directories for all years published) and made copies of his father’s entries, which listed his employer. In the course of our conversation, I learned that the patron had seen a notice in the Journal Gazette that former employees of the Joslyn Manufacturing and Supply Company (now defunct) were being sought by the United States Department of Labor in regard to benefits that may be due to them or their heirs because of hazardous work conditions. This company was located on Taylor Street in Fort Wayne, and in the 1940s manufactured rods made of uranium to be used in the atomic bomb. Many former employees, including this patron’s father, developed health problems after working with the uranium. In order to claim benefits, he explained to me that he was accumulating paperwork for the government: including proof of employment (from the directories); Social Security Administration Earnings Information; death certificate; medical records; and related records.

The patron recently returned to the library and gave me an update. He sent in the required paperwork and his mother, as surviving widow, was awarded compensation. He is now helping several of his dad’s buddies also gain benefits. The government is actively looking for other affected workers and their families. If you or your family may have been affected, while working at the Joslyn Manufacturing Company from 1943 to 1952, look into this program. For additional information, contact the Labor Department's Paducah Resource Center at 866-534-0599. The same program also has compensation available for workers in other energy-related fields. See the Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Program Act website for list of companies.

If this patron hadn’t known where his dad had worked, he might have missed out on legitimate money owed to his family. What might you learn about your ancestors’ occupations?

One year ago today, on Friday, June 29, 2012, Allen County, Indiana, along with much of the Midwest, experienced an extremely strong thunderstorm, known as a derecho, which resulted in a great deal of damage to homes and other buildings, many fallen trees, and the loss of electrical power to tens of thousands of homes. Some area residents were without power for more than a week due to that storm and the other storms in the days following.

Following the storm, many people would take photos of the destruction. Knowing that these scenes would be fascinating to future generations, we invited the community to share those photos with others. Those photos are now available through Community Album, so take a few minutes to view these Summer Storm 2012 photos, and remember where you were last year. If you have photos you'd like to share, the Album is still open. Just click and follow the directions.

A more recent book by Indiana University professor and linguist Michael McCafferty, an authority on Algonquian languages, casts doubt on most of the above theories, and his work illustrates the complexities of language that can often be imbedded in the naming of a place. In his book, Native American Place-Names of Indiana (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2008) Gc 977.2 M123n, McCafferty devotes a chapter on the Kekionga-Kiskakon question, and local historians finally have some answers to a question that has vexed them as they have grown dissatisfied with the blackberry patch tradition.

McCafferty agrees with Dunn that <Kiskakon> has an Ottawa derivation. Offering a richer explanation, he states that it was almost certainly derived from the common Gallicized Algonquian name for the bear totem band of the Ottawa tribe. However, he also clarifies how this Ottawa term came to be applied to this place, since the Miami, not the Ottawa, were the dominant tribe in this area. His explanation seems sensible: it was not that the Ottawa held this place, but that it was their term for this Miami-held place, since Ottawa would surely have had a name for this important area. The original word, before being altered by the French, may have been kiiskakkam or the longer kiskakkamikaang. “In sum, then,” writes McCafferty, “the French may have used <Kiskakon>, an old, comfortable Ottawa standard in lieu of the actual somewhat homophonous Ottawa expression.”

In continuing his analysis, McCafferty demonstrates convincingly that <Kekionga> did not derive from a corruption of <Kiskakon>, since it has no common linguistic root. It does not mean blackberry patch, nor does it stem from the Miami-Illinois word, (ah)kihkonki, meaning pot or kettle. One possibility, he suggests, is a different Miami word, (ah)kihkionki, pronounced [kihkioŋgi], a term that means “on the earth.” The Miami villages at Fort Wayne were located on a steep bluff on the St. Joseph River just north of the confluence, where the French built their second fort, Fort St. Joseph. A French-speaking British lieutenant, H. Duvernet, observed in 1778 that the rivers often overflowed their banks in the spring, drowning many of the Indian dwellings, but ground where the French fort was built stood on higher ground and was dry. “Thus, given the site’s geographical setting, one is inclined to see in Miami-Illinois (ah)kihkionki … as a term referring to the only suitable dry living space amid the surrounding, expansive swamplands and flood-prone valleys – on the earth rather than submersed in water.”

Even this interpretation is likely wrong, however, and McCafferty goes on to call <Kekionga> “a fun-house mirror” because of its inherent distortions. Since it does not appear in any French or British sources from the eighteenth century, one has to search other records. The Moravian missionary David Zeisberger wrote the name in 1784 as <Gigeyunk>. John Heckewelder, a colleague, called it <Kegeyunk> at about the same time, while the American general Josiah Harmar wrote in 1790 of <Kekaiogue> before his ill-fated expedition against the Miami villages later that year. All of these terms seem to be early variations of Kekionga, but the name has not been found in earlier sources.

After a lengthy analysis of the vowel sounds, McCafferty proposes another Miami-Illinois word for the word’s origin, kiihkayonk, pronounced [kiihkayoŋgi], a phrase meaning “at Kikaya” or “Kikaya’s Place,” with <Kikaya> representing a personal name in the Delaware Indian language for “Old Man.” The Miami retooled the name in their own dialect. Perhaps “Kikaya” represented General Anthony Wayne, who had defeated the confederated tribes at the Battle of Fallen Timbers and constructed Fort Wayne at the headwaters in 1794. With the Americans now firmly occupying the site, it would have been logical for the remaining Miami to use this term. However, the matter is still more complicated, since variants of <Kekionga> were in use in the 1780s. Perhaps the Delaware tribe had used <Kikaya> as a term of respect for the principal Miami chiefs and elders who had lived there before Wayne’s arrival. McCafferty proposes yet another similar word, čečaahkonki, meaning “at the sand-hill crane,” since the crane was the totem for the Miami and could be seen as a representation of their village. However, there is no contemporary documentary evidence for its use, even though it seems logical, since a similar word, waayaahtanonki, meaning “at the Wea,” was used to describe the Miami-Wea village near modern Lafayette.

In Native American Place-names of Indiana, McCafferty comes closer than any historian in unraveling the mystery of Kekionga, but his conclusions are by no means simple or clear-cut. As he has so meticulously revealed, the story of the name contains many layers, and none stands out as absolutely authoritative. When delving into the naming history of any place, whether it is here in Fort Wayne or elsewhere, expect that task to be muddy. The path may take the researcher into linguistic studies that go far beyond what one would expect in traditional sources. Merely opening a local history book may not offer up an accurate explanation.

What’s in a name, or more specifically, a place name? Local historians and genealogists are often challenged by the earlier names given to a specific place, especially if that name is rooted in a Native American language and has been endowed over time with romantic or exotic connotations. What is the real meaning of the word, and how has it changed? Getting to the truth may involve much more than opening up a local history book.

A case in point involves the word <Kekionga>. The area at the headwaters of the Maumee River in northeastern Indiana that comprises what is now the city of Fort Wayne, just blocks from where the library stands, was known by a variety of names in its long past. Before the establishment of the first American fort in 1794, the land had both strategic and mercantile significance to Native Americans and French voyageurs that explored and occupied the region in the early eighteenth century. When General Anthony Wayne built Fort Wayne, his officers and soldiers referred to the collection of Miami and other Indian villages located nearby variously as Miamitown and Kekionga – the latter term being an approximation, at best, for the Miami parlance as interpreted by an American ear. French explorers of an earlier time had referred to this place by many other names, including “Kiskakon.” The villages stood on the opposite side of the Maumee River near its confluence with the St. Joseph and St. Mary’s rivers in what is now the Lakeside neighborhood. It was an area of strategic importance to the United States in the 1790s, since controlling the rivers meant domination of the Old Northwest Territory.

Since the mid-nineteenth century, local historians have attempted to find the meaning of these terms even though their research has not been fully grounded in linguistics. In the first published History of Fort Waynein 1868, Wallace Brice, an amateur historian, contended that <Kekionga> was the Miami term for “blackberry bush” or “blackberry patch” (see Wallace Brice, History of Fort Wayne from the Earliest Known Accounts[Fort Wayne: D. W. Jones, 1868], p. 23n). Even though it had no historical basis, Brice’s claim was repeated by generations of historians that followed him. Indeed, <Kekionga> had an exotic sound that made it a favorite of early nineteenth century settlers in Fort Wayne. Over time it developed a deep resonance. Businesses and clubs adopted the name, especially after it was incorporated into Fort Wayne’s official city seal in 1858. A few years later the city’s first professional baseball team became known as the Kekiongas as a nod to this heritage.

The term <Kiskakon>, on the other hand, was probably unknown to the early settlers. This name was seldom used after the mid-eighteenth century, though it remained popular among early French traders and military officers as noted by Charles Poinsatte in his Outpost in the Wilderness: Fort Wayne 1706-1828. But the French were known to use a myriad of other terms for their outpost and their trading partners, often recycling the names that they heard in conversations and writing them down phonetically.

Kekionga, more than Kiskakon, captured the public imagination. By the 1850s, blackberry bushes had a pleasing connotation for explaining the area’s origins. The respected Indiana historian Jacob P. Dunn wrote in 1888 that the blackberry bush was an emblem of antiquity, since the bushes sprang up on the sites of many older settlements in Indiana. He claimed that the story of Kekionga’s blackberry definition had originated with one Barron, an old French trader on the Wabash River, who may have repeated the claim to Brice. Dunn qualified the tradition, however, by asserting that “Kekionga” was more likely a corruption or dialectical form of <Kiskakon> or <Kikakon>, a variant name for the place, but he failed to offer evidence for how such a change was made (see Jacob P. Dunn, Indiana: A Redemption from Slavery [New York: Houghton Mifflin, 1888], p. 48).

Dunn identifies <Kiskakon> as the name of a band or subgroup within the Ottawa tribe, defined as “clipped scalp locks.” Since the Maumee River which flows past the village was sometimes known on early maps as the Ottawa River, Dunn suggests without authority that the Ottawa tribe must have occupied the location of the Miami village. Following his lead, other scholars have suggested that the term <Kekionga> may itself be derived from “hair clipping place,” perhaps to designate a spot where Native American warriors shaved and prepared their hair for battle and ceremony (see Michael Hawfield, Here’s Fort Wayne Past and Present [Fort Wayne: Bicentennial Fort Wayne, 1994], p. 6).

In late March of 1913, the Ohio Valley experienced one of the most devastating floods of all time. Especially in river towns like Peru, Logansport and Fort Wayne, Indiana, and Dayton, Ohio, the water was all-consuming. Fort Wayne is home to the Maumee River Basin, one of the eight major watersheds in the state. The confluence of the Maumee, St. Joseph and St. Marys Rivers is in the heart of town, and the Basin also includes the Trier, Junk and Fairfield Ditches and Spy Run Creek.

Locally, the rivers crested at 26.1 feet before the flood waters receded. Some 5,000 acres were flooded in the Fort Wayne area and 15,000 were left homeless for more than a week. The property loss was estimated at $25 million.

The devastation in the Midwest began with deadly tornadoes in Nebraska and Iowa on Easter Sunday, March 23. The storms moved eastward across Illinois and into Indiana. Northern Indiana already had experienced a heavy rainfall on Good Friday, March 21. Between the morning of March 23 and the night of March 25, 4.75 inches of rain fell. As many as 2000 homes were underwater in Fort Wayne by Tuesday, March 25. Before the rivers crested at 26.1 feet on Wednesday night, the Lakeside dikes of the St. Joseph River broke in two places. The electric light plant was submerged, casting Fort Wayne into darkness for two nights. The three pumping stations stalled, leaving the town vulnerable with no fire protection.

Six people are reported to have lost their lives in Fort Wayne during the Great Flood of 1913, including four young girls from the Allen County Orphans Home who drowned when their boat capsized during an attempt to move children from the home to a safer location. In other cities, the loss of life was even greater. In Peru, on the Wabash River, twenty people died. And in Dayton, Ohio, 150 died.

In Peru, the winter quarters of the Hagenbeck-Wallace Circus were flooded with six feet of water. Joseph Leiethel, one of the circus managers, reported that the elephants panicked, pulled their stakes from the ground and began to fight with one another in their fear. Five elephants were killed in the fighting, three were drowned and one died of exhaustion. Three escaped and were roaming the countryside. “Most of the monkeys went floating down the crest of the flood huddled on pieces of wreckage,” Leiethel said.

The storms raged on eastward, all the way to Vermont, leaving citizens in their wake to pick up the pieces of their lives and their communities.

The Genealogy Center received an email query from fellow genealogy librarian Marcia Ford of the Kokomo and Howard County (IN) Public Library Genealogy & Local History Department, recently, asking if we could identify the object in the picture featured with this entry. Marcia had been sent the photo by a colleague, whose friend found the object with a metal detector. It is rectangular, about two inches wide and three inches tall with a hole in the top and small tabs on the sides. Its legend reads “XMAS GREETING ’91” and what looks like “__ESA ARMSTRONG.” Underneath that, “FT. WAYNE, IND.” is clear. There may be a smaller embossed message below this, but it isn’t readable from the picture.

After some research, it seems likely that this metal tag was once attached to a hat box. The name on the tag isn’t “___ESA ARMSTRONG,” but “JAMES A. ARMSTRONG.” According to The Illustrated Milliner, Vol. 11, pp. 175-176, published in 1910, James A. Armstrong established Adams & Armstrong millinery firm in Fort Wayne in 1886 and shortly after bought out his partner and changed the name of the company to The James A. Armstrong Millinery Co. The 1890-1891 Fort Wayne City and Allen County Directory published by R. L. Polk Company, shows James A. Armstrong, wholesale milliner, with his shop at 109 Calhoun Street.

It may be that this tag was attached to the hat boxes containing hats ordered by women to complement their holiday finery, or to the boxes of hats purchased as gifts, or both. In effect, the tag probably served as an advertisement for the James A. Armstrong Company. Without locating an intact hat box from that company for the 1891 holiday season, or a photograph of one, it is not possible to know for sure whether the mystery of this item’s identity has been solved, but this seems like a reasonable possibility.

The full text of the 1910 issue of The Illustrated Milliner that includes the article mentioning the James A. Armstrong Company is available online at the HathiTrust Digital Library. It even includes a photograph of James! James A. Armstrong added C. T. Pidgeon and W. S. Turner to his firm in 1894, then sold out to his partners and moved to Denver, Colorado, in 1902. According to the article, he planned to retire from the millinery business at that point, but because “Denver held such alluring prospects for a first class jobbing millinery house,” he changed his mind about retiring and established Howland & Armstrong in Denver. That firm was dissolved in 1902 and Armstrong, with a former Fort Wayne partner, W. S. Turner, formed the Armstrong Turner Millinery Company in Denver, which was still in business at the time the article was written in 1910.

Heirlooms and artifacts sometimes can tell their stories if we are observant and think creatively about sources in libraries and elsewhere that might help us decipher available clues. In this case, old city directories were instrumental in unlocking a possible answer to the mystery of the metal Christmas greetings tag.

We are inviting you to contribute images of the storm of Friday, June 29th, and its aftermath, to the Allen County Public Library's Community Album. There is no limit on how many images you can share. Send your photos via email to Genealogy@ACPL.Info. Include a brief description including the location and indicate if you do not want your name included in the attribution. Be a part of recording this event for future historians!

The old Public Library of Fort Wayne and Allen County, a Carnegie building at 301 West Wayne Street, opened in 1904, and had overflowed into fourteen separate buildings around the downtown area by the early 1960s.

When the Indiana History and Genealogy room opened in 1961, it was a small space in an already crowded building.

Most research material had to be retrieved using call slips, pieces of paper on which to request a volume to examine. Closed stacks and call slips would continue into the next century.

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We were wondering if any of our readers recall coming in to do research back in the early 1960s. Would you share your memories?